In lithography, there is an ongoing desire to reduce the size of features in a lithographic pattern in order to increase the density of features on a given substrate area. In photolithography, the push for smaller features has resulted in the development of technologies such as immersion lithography and extreme ultraviolet (BUY) lithography, which are however rather costly.
A potentially less costly road to smaller features that has gained increasing interest is so-called imprint lithography, which generally involves the use of a “stamp” (often referred to as an imprint template) to transfer a pattern onto a substrate. An advantage of imprint lithography is that the resolution of the features is not limited by, for example, the wavelength of a radiation source or the numerical aperture of a projection system. Instead, the resolution is mainly limited to the pattern density on the imprint template.
Lithography typically involves applying several patterns onto a substrate, the patterns being stacked on top of one another such that together they form a device such as an integrated circuit. Alignment of each pattern with a previously provided pattern is an important consideration. If patterns are not aligned with each other sufficiently accurately, then this may result in some electrical connections between layers not being made. This, in turn, may cause the device to be non-functional. A lithographic apparatus therefore may include an alignment apparatus which is intended to align each pattern with a previously provided pattern.
It is desirable to provide an imprint lithography alignment apparatus and method which is novel and inventive over the prior art.